The Charleston County, South Carolina School District yesterday confirmed it notified 20,653 people about a July 2024 data breach.
The District on July 16, 2024 said unknown actors disrupted its systems and stole data. At the time, CCSD officials told Comparitech, “we are not aware of any malicious misuse of school data.”
The district has not publicly disclosed what personal data was compromised, but it is offering eligible victims free identity theft protection, which usually implies that Social Security numbers and/or other info that could be used for identity fraud were compromised.
Ransomware gang RansomHub claimed responsibility for the breach in August 2024. To prove its claim, the group posted sample images of what it says are documents stolen from CCSD.
CCSD has not verified RansomHub’s claim. We do not yet know if CCSD paid a ransom, how much RansomHub demanded, or how attackers breached the district’s network. Comparitech contacted CCSD for comment and will update this article if it replies.
“[…] we learned of information suggesting that between July 16, 2024 and July 19, 2024 an unknown actor gained unauthorized access to our network and acquired certain files, some of which may have contained your personal information,” says CCSD’s notice to victims.
The deadline for victims to enroll in free credit monitoring through IDX is July 29, 2025.
Who is RansomHub?
RansomHub is a prominent cybercriminal gang that runs a ransomware-as-a-service business in which affiliates pay to use the group’s malware and infrastructure to launch their own attacks and collect ransoms. RansomHub is behind high-profile attacks on Rite Aid, Christie’s auction house, Frontier Communications, and the Florida Department of Health.
RansomHub started claiming attacks on its data leak site in February 2024. Since then, it’s claimed 136 confirmed ransomware attacks, compromising 6.5 million records. The group claimed another 631 unconfirmed attacks that haven’t been acknowledged by the targeted organizations.
In 2024, RansomHub claimed 13 attacks on educational institutions including:
In 2025 so far, RansomHub has claimed 23 confirmed attacks and 201 unconfirmed.
Ransomware attacks on US schools
In 2024, Comparitech researchers logged 75 confirmed ransomware attacks on US schools and colleges, compromising more than 2.8 million records. The average ransom is $876,000.
In 2025 to date, we tracked 14 such attacks including:
Ransomware attacks on schools and colleges disrupt day-to-day operations such as taking attendance, submitting grades, phone and email communications, billing, payroll, and assignments. Ransomware attacks are often two-pronged: they lock down systems and steal data. Schools that refuse to pay face extended downtime, lose data, and put students and faculty at increased risk of fraud.
About Charleston County School District in South Carolina
Charleston County School District is the second-biggest school district in South Carolina. It enrolls about 50,000 students across 80 schools, and employs about 6,500 people.
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